Back	Cem Mansur: "Listening to the World from Istanbul" Well-known orchestra conductor, Cem Mansur, will be joining us at the Voyvoda Street Istanbul Lectures, with a presentation entitled, "Listening to the World from Istanbul". According to Mansur, artists instinctively question the historical and social framework of the society they live and work in. He suggests that for the musician, polyphonic music is the key to experiencing the world; it is also the most accurate witness to its time. In the lecture scheduled for Wednesday, June 23, at 6:30 p.m., Mansur will offer his perspective of Istanbul, a spot where East and West meet, and recount his efforts, as a musician, to contribute to the city's identity. Mansur's conducting experience covers a wide range of music from Baroque to the present and includes several rarely performed and forgotten works. In 1986, he directed Elgar's incomplete opera "The Spanish Lady", which was being staged for the first time in London, and in 2000, at the City of London Festival, he conducted Offenbach's "Whittington" opera, which had last been performed 126 years ago. Mansur, who is the honorary conductor of England's second oldest choir, the Ipswich Choral Society, directed the Istanbul State Opera from 1981 to 1989 and was also chief conductor of the Oxford City Orchestra from 1989 to 1996. He currently collaborates and is featured as guest conductor with operas and orchestras in the Netherlands, France, Italy, the Czech Republic, Rumania, Hungary, Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Israel and Russia. For more information on the free lectures program offered by the Museum, please call the Ottoman Bank Archive and Research Center at (212) 334 22 70.